Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices and arrangements of anchors for securing a ligament, or the like, to a bone surface during a ligament repair or replacement surgical procedure.
Prior Art
The present inventor is an inventor of earlier suture anchor devices and systems, set out in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,632,100; 4,738,255; and 5,037,426. Additionally, the present inventor is an inventor of several inventions for clamping or tacking a ligament onto a bone surface, as set out in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,960,420; and 5,013,316 and in a U.S. patent application in an Improved Channel Ligament Clamp, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/959,546. Similar to the cited suture anchor devices of the inventor, the present invention is in a device for turning an anchor into a bone mass, which anchor mounts a suture for use in securing a section of a ligament thereto. Unlike the earlier patents, the present invention is in an anchor that is constructed to provide for obtaining a strong bone purchase in a hole that has been formed into the bone surface for receiving the anchor. With anchor turning provided by a driver whose end is secured to the anchor end for turning and is arranged to be separated or broken off from the seated anchor, releasing the driver. The driver is then pulled away from the anchor, leaving a suture secured to and extending from the anchor rear end.
Additional to drivers shown in the cited patent to the inventor patents to others have been granted. None, however, have involved break-away anchor and driver combinations that is like that of the present invention.
Also, some examples of other devices for connecting ligament ends onto a bone surface or within a bone are shown in a patent to Hunt, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,590,928; and in patents that the present inventor is an inventor of, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,632,100 and 4,738,255. Additionally, patents to Vives, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,711,234 and to Paulos, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,988,351, show, respectively, pin and disk couplings for providing for ligament mounting onto a bone surface. Additionally, devices for coupling a ligament onto a bone surface are shown in patents to Jurgutis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,346 and to Frey, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,335 that involve multi-pin staple arrangements.
None of the cited anchor and connector configurations, however, involve a combination anchor and driver arrangement where the driver, after turning the anchor into a hole that has been formed into a bone mass, can be easily and conveniently broken off from the anchor rear or coupling end and pulled therefrom, leaving a suture attached to which anchor end.